UNITED STATES: The US dealt out $19 billion in aid last year or nearly a quarter of the global total, the US State Department said. The figure, according to State Department spokesman Richard Boucher, not only means that the country's official development assistance (ODA) has jumped two-fold since 2000, it also represents the highest share by any donor nation in twenty years. As noted in our daily Development Newswire, a report by the OECD showed that U.S. contributions jumped to 0.16 percent of the gross national income in 2004 from 0.15 percent the year before, but the number remains a great deal short of the UN target of 0.7 percent, AP reports. Meanwhile, the US administration is considering cutting a deal with congressional supporters of the sugar industry in order to defuse their opposition to the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). The Financial Times (UK) reports that although the administration is wary of making concessions too far ahead of a vote that is not likely before the end of May, the sugar industry is viewed as requiring additional reassurances in order to drop its objections to the trade pact. The willingness to contemplate a deal with US sugar interests is the strongest sign yet that Cafta faces political trouble in Washington. In other news, AP reports that former President Bill Clinton announced this week that his foundation will deliver HIV drugs to 10,000 children in about 10 developing countries by the end of the year and will expand its AIDS efforts in underserved rural areas. The former president said his foundation was pledging about $10 million for the pediatric and rural programs and was working with UNICEF and other organizations to expand the program to reach more than 60,000 children by the end of 2006.
